CSA Directory Update
In case you are still on the look out for a CSA farm, here are few more links for you to look into:
Amarosia in Shediac, N.B.
Eagle Creek Farms near Calgary and Red Deer, AB
Other CSA farms in Alberta
ACORN (Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network) list organic farms in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick
Star Hollow Farm in Washington, D.C.
American CSAs listed at Urban Farm Online
Équiterre is still the most complete listing for Quebec, however, if you live in Montreal, here are other options not listed on the website:
Le Frigo-Vert, Concordia's food co-op
Fait Ici, a loco-centric old school general store
Co-op La Maison Verte is a health food co-op serving as a drop-off point for three farms in NDG.
Happy hunting!
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Hello, Tol here. I was wondering if any of your readers in Montreal might be interested in a CSA-like activity, buying food from a natural foods distributor. People get together in a loose "buying club" and pool their orders for delivery to one member's home or another place. The company I do this with is called the Ontario Natural Food Cooperative (ONFC--www.onfc.on.ca) in Toronto - I used to work there. They have a truck in Montreal about once a month. (A long time ago there was a wholesale co-op in Montreal called La Balance. There is one in Sherbrooke called Coopérative Alentour, but I don't think they sell to individuals any more.) The ONFC carries evreything, from bulk grains and flours to natural cosmetics and everything in between: veg. oils, nut butters, cereals, packaged foods, frozen foods, dairy and non-dairy, gluten free, organic, fair trade, cleaning products, etc etc etc. Their catalogue (a hundred or so pages) is not on-line, but they have links to the web sites of all their suppliers. I believe they also have some information about how buying clubs work. Their prices are considerably below retail in a natural foods store.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I didn't know if you were going to be doing a season-end post on CSAs and would like to mention this to your readers. A friend and I do an order about twice a year, but could order more frequently if other people were involved and wished to. We'd like to keep it simple (there are some large groups out there that require a degree of administration). I also don't have a car so I would be keen on having the ONFC truck continue to come to my place (in Verdun) with the hope that other people involved would be able to swing by here and pick up their order. If anyone wants to reach me, tolderol, I can be found at gmail. Anyway, just an idea. It's great food, much of which you can't even find in little cubby-hole natural foods stores, and they're good people.
Thanks for the info Tol. I'll keep it in mind when I write the next CSA update. In the mean time, have you ever considered joining the Concordia food co-op? The principle is the same as your scheme, except they're local, and their shop is on Sherbrooke street, so it's not a far stretch from Verdun, and they're right near a metro station. Perhaps you can swing by and see what they have on offer.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, thanks. By all means a worthy venture, but the ONFC lets me stock up on stuff the Concordia co-op doesn't have - to carry the ONFC's complete product line in a store would require about 4 supermarkets' worth of floor space - at very low prices.
ReplyDeletep.s. People needn't hook up with me. Maybe there are readers in the same neighbourhood who would want to start their own group. I'm sure the ONFC would be glad to get them set up (as I say, I only *used* to work there . . .). It's an interesting business, model, they service big and small retail accounts and do direct-to-consumer sales at wholesale prices as well. They then do education, production development with local suppliers, promotion of organic and fair trade, etc., much of which a strictly commercial enterprise in their place wouldn't be interested in doing. They're owned by member groups and member retail co-ops. Voilà.
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